History of Famous Jewels and Collections: Re: Queen Mother Mystery Jewels Paris 1938 More images.

Thank you for the list of alternative possibilities Dave when it comes to the necklace. Sadly the quality of the photographs is not so good as to get a proper look at the necklace worn. So I do not want to speculate that much but it could be one of the alternatives you mentioned, or even a combination of those.

When it comes to the tiara... I am still not convinced that it is a fringe / kokoshnik tiara. To me the empty space between the diamond elements is too big and the sides just too levelled with the front in order for it to be a fringe. If it were Queen Alexandra's kokoshnik she would have had to borrow that from Queen Mary, which I find unlikely as Queen Elizabeth had access to a perfectly magnificent fringe tiara she could have worn.

I do hope others will "chip in" on the discussion here as I myself do not have an instagram account. Call me old-fashioned or daft but I have a sort of aversion to sites like Facebook, Instagram or any place where I have to accept cookies and who-knows-what in order to be able to see the content.

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Hmmmmm, I did a simple search on the wedding presents gifted to the late QEQM and found she was gifted several necklaces of diamonds and pearls.

(01): From her Father the Earl of Strathmore: A rope necklace of pearls and diamonds.

(02): From her mother: A pearl and diamond necklace platinum sautoir necklace.

(03): From the Citizens of London: A pearl and diamond sautoir consisting of five rows of pearls mounted on fine platinum wiree with a large pearl drop.

So my guess is that maybe the necklace the late QEQM is wearing in the photo could be probably the one from the Citizens of London.

As for the tiara I'm leaning to the Queen Alexandra kokosnick all diamond tiara or it is possible there are tiaras within the BRF that we know absolutely nothing about.

Regards,

Dave.

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I thought I'd make a quick comment here before I shut down my computer for the night.

1. I am trying to avoid commenting on the jewels (giving my opinion) until Franck has a chance to reply to queries here and on Instagram.

2. We are all on different time zones, so no doubt this will all be a bit disjointed.

For those who haven't caught up with my Instagram site, there are 3 posts dealing with this topic at

https://www.instagram.com/historyfamousjewels/

The individual pages are at

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd9PS3qPjLk/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd9toG6vRup/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd-K4wFvnZL/

I know that sometimes Instagram blocks people if they are not members -- I really do not understand why, but that happened to me sometimes before I joined.

To answer at least some of the queries here.

1. I have definite evidence that Mrs Greville was wearing the 5 strand necklace after the Paris state visit.

2. The press frequently mentions her splendid diamond tiara. My question is always - "Which one?"

I strongly suspect that Mrs Greville didn't give the jewels to QEQM as a gift prior to her death.

But the answers to those questions will be in the Royal Archives in the valuations done by Christie's after Mrs Greville's death.

A valuation had to be done for the British Tax authorities, & duties (taxes) had to be paid. Those records are not with the will & the government's copy of the valuation would have been destroyed 30 years after Mrs Greville's death. (I have checked. They are no longer in the archives) That is standard procedure, and was not done because the jewels went to QEQM.

A copy of the valuation is in the Royal Archives. We know that because of the sources cited by Hugh Roberts in his book, The Queen's Diamonds.